MURDOCH. ] 
. THROWING BOARDS. 217 
well as the foreshaft, is sometimes made of walrus ivory, and the latter 
sometimes of whale’s bone. The chief variation is in the length of the 
No two are precisely alike. 
in Fig. 204, No. 56516 [105]. 
at one end and a groove along 
the upper surface in which 
the spear lies with the butt 
resting against a catch at the 
other end. The dart is pro- 
pelled by a quick motion of 
the wrist, as in casting witha 
fly-rod, which swings up the 
tip of the board and launches 
the dart forward. This con- 
trivanee, which practically 
makes of the hand a lever 
18 inches long, enables the 
thrower by a slight motion of 
the wrist to impart great ve- 
locity to the dart. The use 
of this implement is universal 
Fic. 201.—Fore. Mong the Eskimo, though not 
shaft of seal dart. peculiar to them. The Green- 
landers, however, not only use it for the two 
kinds of darts already mentioned, but have 
adapted it to the large harpoon.’ This is 
undoubtedly to adapt the large harpoon for 
use from the kaiak, which the Greenlanders 
use more habitually than most other Eskimo. 
On the other hand, the people of Baffin Land 
and the adjoining regions, as well as the 
inhabitants of northeastern Siberia, use it 
only with the bird dart.2. Throughout west- 
ern North America the throwing-board is 
used essentially as at Point Barrow. Prof. 
O. T. Mason has given? an interesting ac- 
martingale, and the details of the method of attaching it. 
The foreshaft is generally 
plain, but is oceasionally highly ornamented, as is shown 
The figures are all incised 
and colored, some with ocher and some with soot. 
Both of the kinds of darts above described are thrown 
by means of a hand board or throwing-board. This is a 
flat, narrow board, from 15 to 18 inches long, with a handle 
Fic. 205.—Throwing board for darts. 
count of the different forms of throwing-board used by the Eskimo and 
Aleuts of North America. 
1 Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, Pl. v, Figs. 1 and 2, and Rink as quoted above, also Kane, First Exp., p. 478. 
2 Parry, Second Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik); and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5. 
3 Smithsonian Report for 1884, part 11, pp. 279-289. 
